"The Ying and Yang of Oedipus and Lysistrata".
It was the great Physicist, Isaac Newton who once deducted that for every action there is an equal but opposite reaction. Similarly the concept of Ying and Yang states that for harmony to exist, a person should have a perfect mix of light and dark, good and evil or triumphs and tragedies. Therefore, when trying to compare and contrast the themes of Oedipus Rex and Lysistrata, readers should analyze them both with a Ying and Yang state of mind. Both these plays seem to share three main characteristics. They both embrace, the concept of fate and the willingness to ignore the truth, the relationship between love and war/hate, and both plays also have a very masculine Protagonists who basically lead and manipulates most of the people of the play.
In Lysistrata the concept of fate is the main driving force behind the entire plot of the play. Lysistrata (the protagonist of the play) is an Athenian woman who is sick and tired of war and the treatment of women in Athens. Lysistrata gathers the women of Athens and Sparta in order to try and come up with a reasonable solution top end the current times and war a repression of women. This rebellious display supports the fact that the women of Athens, refuse to accept their fate and role in society; a society that expects them to simply watch their husbands go to war, and have sex with them upon their return (if they returned). As a result the women of Athens and Sparta decide that "it "lies with the women" (line 33) to end the war. They then conspire to abstain from sex until their husbands sign a treaty to end the fighting. The women of this play are strong willed and refuse to accept the fact that their physical composition is not strong enough to end the warfare. Instead they use their physical beauty and cunning nature to persuade they men of the play. Thus proving their reluctance to ignore the truth.